Team Backlash

IntroductionGreetings to all the RMT posters of Smogon! This is my Second UU team but the first one that was meant to be UU from its inception. I decided recently that I was going to drop down from OU to UU, mainly for excitement reasons. I just find that the OU tier is to bland and overdone for me, so I moved down to UU so I could get that rush of battle once more that made me take up Pokemon battling in the first place. So this is the team I have decided will mark my breaking in the UU tier officially. It was built around the concept of using Flygon and its nearly perfect dual stab coverage.

Team Building Process

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So this is where my team started. I was looking at Garchomp (This was before he was moved back down to OU) and could see why his combination dragon and ground type stabs being about to stop everything other then levitating or air balloon Steel types.
Next I looked back at my experience in UU battling and remembered a particularly annoying set for Empoleon that my good friend Thedarklord2155 used against me. It has good synergy with Flygon so I added it onto the team.
Next the good old Spiker staple Froslass was added so I could get spikes to go along with my Rocks on Empoleon.
Looking at my team I could tell I needed a good physical wall to use and looking at the UU tier I though that Creselia would be a great addition due to its HUGE bulk. So on it goes!
Next I noticed my team was without a set up sweeper and I though about my old favorite Scrafty, Littleblue. Adding it to the team I found it had great synergy with Creselia as well.
I would imagine most people reading this just sat back at there computers and said, what the heck is going on here? But just hear me out on this one. Read down to Eelektross's description and you might get it. For now just accept that this is part of my team. And my usual lead.
After some testing and realizing that Eelektross was really more for kicks then anything I swapped to Tornadus and turned Scrafty into a bulk up shed skin set.

TEAM BACKLASH

Tornadus (Ike)
Trait: Prankster
Item: Leftovers (Thinking about Life Orb)
- HP(Fighting)
- U-Turn
- Air Slash
- Taunt
Nature: Timid (+Speed/-Attack)
Ev's: 160HP/96SAttack/252Speed
By popular suggestion and some major testing I decided to sub out Eelektross for Tornadus. And It has been working wonderfully. HP(Fighting) was chosen because it allows me to take out Bisharp who want to boost off of Cresselia otherwise. U-Turn allows me to use this as a great lead and a way to get out of a bad situation if necessary. Air Slash was chosen over Hurricane because of Hurricane's unfortunate Accuracy outside of rain. Taunt keeps me from being statused and gets a +1 priority thanks to Prankster. The Ev spread is so I have enough bulk to survive some hits while still being able to dish them out. This pokemon fits my team so well.

Flygon (Elzo)
Trait: Levitate
Item: Choice Scarf
- Fire Punch
- U-Turn
- Outrage
- Earthquake
Nature: Jolly (+Speed/-SAttack)
Ev's: 4HP/252Attack/252Speed
The standard Scarf Flygon set. Fire Punch takes down steel types that aren't hit by Earthquake (That one floating bell that we all know and love), Earthquake and Outrage are a great Dual Stab combo and hit everything for great damage. U-Turn is to keep the momentum going for my team and give me two U-Turn users with great coverage between each other letting me take down slower teams with ease. Nothing much else to say here, this is really really standard.

Empoleon (Soren)
Trait: Torrent
Item: Leftovers
- Scald
- Stealth Rock
- Roar
- Ice Beam
Nature: Calm (+SDef/-Attack)
Ev's: 252HP/76Def/180SDef
This is a set taken from my good friend TheDarkLord2155 (Klaus) and his UU team. Its main goal is to just to set up rocks after Frostlass has already put down multiple layers of spikes and then Roar all the things. Specially defensive Ev spread lets me be both the Special wall of my team and swap into a medley attacks and most importantly be able to survive a thunderbolt from Zapdos and hit it hard with Ice Beam or roar it out if its a sub set. Scald is a fun stab to throw around and try and burn people with and Empoleon's special attack is nothing to scoff at so the damage is worthwhile as well. I am thinking about taking out Ice Beam for something else but can't decide what it would be. Maybe HP(Fire).

Froslass (Remedi)
Trait: Cursed Body
Item: Focus Sash
- Spikes
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Shard
- Taunt
Nature: Jolly (+Speed/-SAttack)
Ev's: 4HP/252Attack/252Speed
OK now this set is my spin on the classic Focus Sash Froslass. Spikes and Sash let me get down two sets of spikes bar scarf users and priority (If anyone ever runs Bullet Punch that is). You come in and set down spikes and have a good time before you die. Taunt is useful so I am not total setup bait for pokemon that don't care about Thunder Wave and lets me troll other Hazard Setters. Now this is the part where I part ways with the typical Froslass.

Ice Shard is a strange move to put onto a pokemon such as this but I found that I was having huge trouble with opposing Flygon being able to beat me when they were Scarfed. But with the given Ev investment and the priority of Ice Shard you are guaranteed to OHKO Flygon unless it is 252HP/252Def (Which never happens). Thunder Wave is on this set because I find that often that one Fast Paralysis being put on my opponents team can change a failure to a success. This is especially useful against Heracross if I'm at full health.

Cresselia (Ashera)
Trait: Levitate
Item: Leftovers
- Thunder Wave
- Ice Beam
- Psychic
- Moonlight
Nature: Bold (+Def/-Attack)
Ev's: 252HP/252Def/4SAttack
This set is kinda a strange one to see on a Cresselia. Leftovers for obvious reasons. Ice Beam is so that I am not totally trolled by Gligar and it lets me take out pokemon like Honchcrow who would normally just boost off of me and sweep. Thunder Wave lets me stop a huge number of sweepers in their tracks and make them almost useless for the rest of the battle. Moonlight is my recovery of choice when Leftovers just doesn't do it. I am thinking about taking out Leftovers for either a Colbur Berry or a Tanga Berry to stop Honchkrow and Heracross respectively. Or possibly a Lum Berry so that I can take a Toxic without it crippling me.

Scrafty (BigRed)
Trait: Shed Skin
Item: Leftovers
- Ice Punch
- Crunch
- Bulk Up
- Drain Punch
Nature: Impish (+Def/-SAttack)
Ev's: 252HP/180Def/76SDef
A variant on my original Scrafty set. It has the same Ev's and Nature but almost everything else is changed. I am now running Bulk Up and Ice Punch over Substitute and Dragon Dance. Bulk Up gives me even more.... well... bulk! I suppose its self explanatory. Ice Punch was chosen over Substitute so Flying types wouldn't destroy me and tank my other moves without skipping a beat. Drain Punch and Crunch are great stab moves and allow me to take out a variety of threats with their Coverage. Shed Skin allows me to laugh at people who try and status me and it also makes Toxic Spikes entirely Useless against my team.

Prior Members

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Eelektross (Ilayna)
Trait: Levitate
Item: Flying Gem
- Wild Charge
- U-Turn
- Acrobatics
- Superpower
Nature: Impish (+def,-SAttack)
Ev's: 252HP/144Attack/80Def/32SDef
OK I get it. This thing is really really really weird. But the reasons for why I use it aren't nearly as eccentric as its design. I use this as my counter to Heracross who used to just run rampant all over my team, the spread letting her tank a CloseCombat, Megahorn, or Stone Edge without going down and countering with Flying Gem Acrobatics for a KO no matter what. Its other moves are for coverage purposes and for making it a great lead. I usually lead with Ilayna (Eelektross) for a number of reasons, U-turn to get it out, its ability to take huge chunks out anything that tries to stay in on it. But there is one reason that trumps all of these combined.

It throws the opponent off guard and leaves them guessing. If I lead with Flygon and U-turn out most people in UU just look at that and have a good way to respond. But when I throw out a Eelektross it makes them guess about what I'm going to do. Even if they take the time to look up Eelektross its huge move pool keeps it from being predictable. Another thing that makes this hard to counter is its lack of Weaknesses (Being one of only 3 fully evolved Pokemon to be able to claim the title of having no weaknesses), this prevents an opponent from simply hitting the super-effective move and killing me.

Great things these Pokemon do for the Team

1.Hazard Ignorance: Two Levitate Pokemon, One flying type, a Toxic Spikes immunity, Shed Skin keeping Toxic Spikes from really hurting Scrafty, and three Stealth Rock resistances. These combine to mean that Toxic Spikes can be down and still not mean anything being able to only really touch Scrafty who just Shed Skins it off and Froslass who was never meant to survive for long anyways. Spikes only manage to hurt Scrafty, Empoleon, and Froslass. Scrafty often times uses Leftovers and Drain Punch to make this residual damage mean very little to him. Empoleon is hindered by the spikes damage but leftovers help with this. Froslass is as said before not a survivor anyways!!!! So that doesn't really matter. Stealth Rocks give me some trouble because Tornadus has a weakness to them and it keeps him from being able to U-Turn around effectively, but no team is perfect I suppose. But packing three resistances to Stealth Rocks (Scrafty, Empoleon, and Flygon) means I can swap into Stealth Rock most of the time without fear. These combine to mean that any one hazard only threatens a portion of my team and even when combined I don't take huge amounts of damage from my swaps. This also reduces the need for a rapid spinner.

2.Status Absorption: Between Flygon, Scrafty, and Empoleon I have a great status absorbing core to work with. Empoleon being able to tank Burns and being immune to Toxic, and Flygon being able to swap into a suspected Thunder Wave and cause damage. Scrafty is great because shed skin makes it basically immune to status. Letting me set up on things that try and poison me with impunity. ​

Major Threat List

HonchkrowHonchkrow is extremely dangerous for my team if it can get one or more boosts under its belt. The biggest reason why it is a huge threat as opposed to other sweepers is that is packs a dark type stab that destroys Cresselia who normally tanks all boosted sweeper hits and counters with Thunder Wave to cripple them.

ZapdosOK this this just runs all over my team. Attacking sets can be stopped by Froslass's Ice Beam but the fact that I rely on my suicide pokemon to take it out is not a good thing at all. Bulky sets can be taken down by clever swapping but there is really no hard counter for it on my team. I am still working on how to take this one out.

SableyeThis is everyone's favorite thorn in their side! When Tornadus is still alive it can prankster Taunt it and shut it down but without that it stops the rest of my team dead in their tracks. I can take it down with one of my powerful attackers but they always get crippled in the process.

Shoddy for Importing

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A few things stand out immediately to me about your team, so I'd like to offer a few simple changes first.
-With prior damage to some of your team members, I would not put it past heracross to complete a scarf moxie sweep of your team with megahorn. SD hera could potentially do the same if Tornadus-I goes down. For this reason, I hate to ask, but please swap fire punch for aerial ace on flygon. It's just not worth hitting bronzong for SE damage when you're still doing stuff all to the bell, and firepunch from scarfgon doesn't come nearly close enough to kill heracross (a 2HKO even with full hazards up).
-As for frosslass, I'd rather that were not used as a sashlead unless you intend to place another ghost pokemon in your team. Your not hyperoffensive here, so it's far too easy for any of UU's spinners to come in and undo your hard work. Worse yet, you have no destiny bond so you shouldn't even be entertaining the idea of focus sash. You are probably better off going with the utility moveset and EV spread from the site http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/froslass
Cresselia is bulky enough to paralyse anything you need to be paralysed, while also getting rid of scarfgon if you can lock them into outrage. Frosslass can use pain split to further wear down foes and heal itself.

Finally, I would be very interested to know how this team deals with SubCM Raikou? Your only phazer in empoleon cannot keep taking thunderbolts, if it can even take a +1 thunderbolt to begin with, cresselia cannot keep breaking the sub after several CM, and I see nothing else that can reliably take hits from either thunderbolt, or hidden power ice in flygon's case. I hate to get rid of prankster taunt, but I wonder, since you seem keen on using life orb, if Rotom-H would help here. Maybe a set with...

EV's depend on whether you wish for it to hit hard and fast or if you want some bulk. Pain Split would let you recover off hazard damage from SR while also adding passive damage. This would help with your threat list quite a bit as Sableye can't burn it while risking Parahax from discharge, Zapdos will hate having all of its attacks resisted and its subs broken (watch out for the odd set carrying toxic though). Honchkrow is still difficult to deal with after boosting but you can attempt to diminish the low PP of suckerpunch with pain split, while resisting brave bird. HP ground with life orb will continually break raikou's subs at +1 while it cannot do much to you in return. If you want, you can use leftovers, but just be sure to have special attack maxed out to ensure the breaking of those substitutes.

Downside to that is that you are going to be stuck playing guessing games against heracross, but generally people are silly and leave heracross in against flygon, who with aerial ace will revenge them if it does kill something. Similar to chandelure, particularly the SubCM set, but you may just have to live with that...

Hope my changes help. Also one last thing; Honchkrow normally rely on suckerpunch as the sole dark attack, so cresselia should be able to cripple it with paralysis, so you can switch to something who can deal with it. I suppose if it's last move is substitute though...

Additional note: I think cresselia gets psycho shift in its movepool if you find toxic to be a hassle. Wouldn't know what move to drop for it however.

Thanks for the rate sir. This was of great help to my team. I will try out using the mentioned Rotom-H set =) I have found that Calm Mind Raikou is a pain for my team because my only phazer is weak to Electric attacks. I have used a Rotom-H on another one of my teams (Which is designed to take advantage of the extreme power of choice band Medicham) and I love using it. Tornadus was really a non-player for my team other then in certain situations (Mainly to shut down Sableye) so getting rid of it seems to be a fine plan.